Safe to Travel in Mexico?

Mexico is gaining a VERY bad reputation in Canada for crimes against tourists - and less-than-competent investigations.

The latest incident:

The burnt body of an Ottawa-area man who was reported missing in Mexico has been found in the trunk of his rental car north of Acapulco, Canada's Foreign Affairs Department confirmed Sunday.

Daniel Dion, 51, is shown in this undated family photo. He was in Mexico to promote his line of luxury purses, some of which contain gold and silver parts. (CP) Daniel Dion, 51, was from Sherbrooke, Que., but lived near Ottawa in the town of Carleton Place.

According to a Foreign Affairs official, police in Mexico say there was a "crime against Dion," but they revealed no details.

Unconfirmed reports say he was abducted and the rental car was set ablaze in Chilpancingo, 115 kilometres from Acapulco. His family was notified of the discovery Saturday night.

Dion had planned a month-long stay in the Mexican resort city for a business trip to sell "eco" purses. He was due to return home last week.

A news agency report in Mexico said he operated a purse manufacturing company that was to employ rehabilitated Mexican prisoners. It said he had access to hundreds of prisoners in eight rehabilitation centres in the state of Guerrero.

His family said Dion was in the country to promote a line of luxury purses he designed from recycled materials. Some of the purses feature gold and silver parts.

Local media reports said that Dion was last seen leaving a restaurant in Acapulco around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23, and that he got into a car that was not his own, accompanied by three men.

Dion telephoned his wife on the night of Friday, Oct. 22, but the family heard no further news of him.

Family members flew to Mexico last week to help with the search and were providing DNA samples to police over the weekend.

I live in Mexico, Tijuana specifically. Mexico City, the capital, can indeed be quite dangerous for a very outwardly overt tourist. Generally the major tourist cities, e.g. the "Spring Break" cities such as Cancun, Cabo, Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta have this sort of safe tourist bubble, specifically and mostly for American tourists. When an adventurous tourist wanders outside of it that's when problems tend to happen, but generally the tourist accommodations and routes are pretty safe.